Back when I was in college, three friends and I had a Strat-o-matic football league. Our league used Canadian Football League teams so that there were no arguments, even though all of the players were NFL players and defenses. One of my friends had Tony Dungy as his head coach. At the time, Dungy had been noted as one of the bright defensive minds in the sport. Every season, he was interviewed for open head coaching jobs. He wasn’t given a chance and he toiled in Pittsburgh for seven years including defensive coordinator; the Chiefs as defensive backs coach for three seasons and then Viking defensive coordinator. He was not given a chance until Tampa Bay hired him for the big job in 1996 through 2001, then hired by the Indianapolis Colts, where he coached a Super Bowl Champion. At the time, lots of people wondered if Dungy had to wait so long due to the color of his skin.
Black head coaches remain very rare, so rare that Brian Flores’ has sued the NFL alleging racial discrimination in hiring head coaches. That suit remains in court, but to many people, Exhibit A should be Eric Bieniemy. As offensive coordinator for the Chiefs, the team has won two Super Bowls, lost a Super Bowl and lost 2AFC Championships. He hs interviewed for 11 head coaching positions, never being chosen.
The same old excuses abound – he doesn’t interview well; he lucked into having Patrick Mahomes as his QB, and Head Coach Andy Reid is an offensive genius. Meanwhile, after the Super Bowl, both offensive and defensive coordinators from the Philadelphia Eagles, the Super Bowl loser, became head coaches. Neither of them have as much experience as Bieniemy, but, they are both white. Being an Andy Reid disciple didn’t hurt Matt Nagy from being hired by the Chicago ears, which followed one great season with a playoff loss, then the team sank like a brick in a pond, until Nagy got fired.
To distance himself from Reid (who, to his credit, praised Bieniemy profusely after the Super Bowl victory on television), Bieniemy has moved on to be Offensive Coordinator with Washington Commanders. To the positive, Head Coach Ron Riviera is a defensive coach, so Bieniemy will have carte blanche to run the offense. The cons are more troubling: the Commanders remain under a cloud of mismanagement and sexual harassment allegations under Owner Dan Snyder; as a result, the team is reportedly up for sale, with Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos considering buying it. Also, while there is some talent on offense, especially at the skill positions, Washington hasn’t had a truly excellent QB since Joe Theisman and Doug Williams (some would say it was Sonny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer.)
Unfortunately, Bieniemy had to downplay the 800-lb gorilla in the room during his opening news conference, that he’s not focused on using this position to land a head-coaching job. “Being a head coach right now is not in my thought process,” Bieniemy said. “What I’m focused on is being the best coach today; everything else will take care of itself. I live in the moment. Right now my feet are planted here.”
With all of the problems that the NFL has – CTE, the XFL and USFL, navigating the new world of college football amid NIL money and the transfer portal, the owners certainly don’t need to appear like 32 versions of Leonardo DeCaprio in Django Unchained. Once again however, the owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell are as tone deaf as Beethoven.

The past couple of weeks have been tough ones for the University of Alabama. Usually, if one talks about sport at AL, you would be talking about football, but this season, the men’s basketball team has been the talk of the country, currently ranked number 3 in the country, a shoo-in for the NCAA Tournament, and led Brandon Miller. Miller is a 6’9” freshman forward from Antioch, Tennessee, averaging 19.5 points, 8 rebounds and almost 2 assists per game. On the court, he is projected as a lottery pick in the NBA Draft and one of the potential rising stars in the game. Off the court, there are clouds on the horizon, even if the university and Miller’s people don’t think so.
On January 15th, Miller drove teammate Darious Miles to a Tuscaloosa nightclub. According to Miller’s attorney, Miles left his gun in Miller’s car under some clothes in the backseat of the car. Attorney Jim Standridge said that Miller “never saw the handgun, nor handled it.” Miles and another friend Michael Davis went into the bar and apparently started talking to a young woman get 23-year-old Jamea Jonae Harris. The men were apparently trying to get the woman’s phone number. Ms. Harris had a boyfriend outside the club and there was a disagreement. Reportedly, Davis jumped in front of Harris’ black Jeep. Harris’ boyfriend told Davis to move on. At this point, the facts become more than a little dicey. At some point, Miles texted Miller to bring him his gun. According to Miller/his attorney he was already on his way back to the nightclub to pick up Miles, when Miles texted asking Miller to bring his gun. First, why did Miller leave his friend at the bar and not go in? Going back to Watergate, what did he know and when did he know it? Did Miles text Miller before he turned back to get Miles? Or, as Miller seems to be saying, he was returning to the bar before the text came in.
I’m an old fuddy-duddy, I hardly ever text or read texts while I’m driving (only at stop lights). Today’s kids don’t pay that any attention, in my experience. When Miller arrived at the scene, Miles told Davis where the gun was and that there was a round in the chamber. Minutes later, Davis allegedly shot into the victim’s jeep, striking Harris in the face. Harris’ boyfriend, Cedric Johnson, allegedly returned fire, wounding Davis.
Miles has been charged with felony murder, but so far, Miller has not been charged. The question has to be asked, is this another instance of an athlete getting away with questionable behavior? It started last Tuesday when Coach Nate Oats held one of the worst press conferences in recent memory.. Oats said that it was a sad situation, it’s merely a speed bump on the way to the Final Four. He said that the team even said a prayer about it before practice ended. The Alabama version of thoughts and prayers. His involvement hardly merited dealing with in a way that might compromise a couple wins? Maybe Miller should have been suspended while the investigation went on? Apparently not to Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne or Oats, who might have earned the title of America’s most tone-deaf people after making the following comment: “Can’t control everything everybody does outside of practice. Nobody knew that was going to happen. College kids are out. Brandon hasn’t been in any type of trouble, nor is he in any type of trouble in this case. Just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. ”Can’t control what everybody does? Wrong spot at the wrong time? Of course, Oats backed down from him comments and apologized. Ms. Harris’ family was of course, incensed.
Which still left the question – why wasn’t (and hasn’t) Miller been charged with a crime? Miles and Davis have been charged with capital murder. When asked by the media, Tuscaloosa chief assistant district attorney Paula Whitley said, “There’s nothing we could charge him with.” Legal experts told Yahoo Sports that Ms. Whitley and her colleagues lacked sufficient evidence to prove Miller intended to assist in a crime. “They’re saying they don’t have any evidence that he knew what the gun would be used for,” said Philip Holloway, a Georgia criminal defense attorney who has been following the case. “They would have to prove that when he provided the gun to the third party, he was knowingly participating in some kind of criminal act. If he didn’t know that, and there was nothing else illegal about the transfer of that weapon, then there’s no crime.”
The point was time sensitive because Alabama had a big game against South Carolina Tuesday night. All that day, the university was silent on whether Miller would be allowed to play. Finally, three- and one-half hours before the game, the university determined that Miller would be allowed to play. “UA Athletics continues to cooperate fully with law enforcement in the on-going investigation of this tragic situation,” the school said in a statement. “Based on all the information we have received, Brandon Miller is not considered a suspect in this case, only a cooperative witness.”
After being allowed to play, Miller then went out and dropped 41 points on South Carolina in an overtime victory. It was the most points by a freshman in a Division I game this season and the most by an Alabama freshman in program history. He had the game-tying layup with 4.1 seconds to play in regulation then the winner in overtime with 0.9 seconds left on the clock.
Like we should be surprised – sports is always more important than human lives. Many pundits, myself included, felt that a full investigation should have been completed before Miller was allowed to play. As I noted before, if Miller got the text before he came back and didn’t know the gun was in his car, then there’s a point. If he knew however, Mr. Miller has a big legal problem.
Unless this young man is really dumb or naive, if he did not know that Miles and Davis intended to use the gun for shoot anyone what did he thing they were going to use it for – skeet shooting?

I don’t usually write movie reviews except after Toronto, but rarely have I watched a decent film that missed something very basic. I was free yesterday, and I had heard about a new movie called Marlowe. I love film noirs; I like Liam Neeson as an actor and it was directed by Neil Jordan. I like his films: The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire, even some of his weirder pictures like Breakfast on Pluto and Byzantine. So, I wanted to see it.
Like I said, I was free, so I went to the local metroplex. It was a decent film: very well photographed. It had everything that great noir movies have: Neeson was an excellent Marlowe – he’s a large man, a fact that various characters mentioned a few time. Neeson did some action, but this wasn’t Taken or ay of the other “superhero” action movies he’s done. His Marlowe even admitted that the femme fatale, Diane Kruger, 47 years old in real life was “half his age” (Neeson is 70). Jessica Lange plays Ms. Kruger’s mother, very much playing the still sexy dragon lady. The villains were good, Alan Cummings and Danny Huston were appropriately slimy; Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays Cummings’ chauffeur who ends up playing a big part in the ending. The story was adequately labyrinthine. It was good. It could have been much better
As I left though, there was something missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Suddenly it came to me. I don’t know who’s idea it was but this film doesn’t have narration from Marlowe. As a result, you didn’t get the feel of Marlowe’s thoughts and motivations. As a result, Marlowe just acts. Why does he care about this case? There’s no descriptions of the characters, with sardonic wit and world weariness.
Again, worth seeing, but it could have been so much better. I think I’ll go watch Farewell My Lovely with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe.

Is It Time To Retire The Term G.O.A.T.?
All season, NBA fans and media have been awaiting the day in which LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for all-time scoring leader. This of course led to the inevitable crowning of LeBron as the G.O.A.T. – the Greatest of All Time. Living in Chicago, that has the locals buzzing like mad hornets that the “true” GOAT is Michael Jordan. Of course, Jordan’s exploits are legendary, and so are LeBron’s but he does not have the titles, the championships, the reputation for late game heroics as Jordan.
Jordan has been quoted that he doesn’t consider himself the GOAT because it disrespects all of the players who came before him (although given his Type A nature, I would be surprised that he really means that). I have never believed that James was the GOAT. He is one of the 5 best ever to play, he has been an exemplary role model, putting millions into charities and even producing Black themed films (like “Black Ice” the film about Black hockey players in Canada). But he will never completely erase “The Decision,” the unfortunate ESPN show in which he announced that he was leaving Cleveland for the Miami Heat. The fact that he has pulled strings to play with people who can best bring him more titles which worked in Miami and Cleveland when he returned but has devolved into a nightmare for the Lakers. Jordan may have complained about his comrades on the court (even yelling and embarrassing them as we found out in “The Last Dance”) but Jordan couldn’t talk to then GM Jerry “The Sleuth” Krause or Owner Jerry Reinsdorf and court people to come play for the Bulls.
The bigger point is the whole concept of a GOAT. This week, James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but no one ever called him the GOAT. Besides being an amazing mind and author, people forget that the sky-hook was the more feared and unstoppable force in basketball history. Some people have made the point that Jabbar played most of his career without a 3-point basket, but I can’t see Jabbar launching threes – that’s a recent development with Dirk Nowitzski opening the flood gates of sharp shooting big men, but Jabbar scored most of his points in the paint. Before Jordan, I though Oscar Roberson was the GOAT – no one had ever averaged a triple-double for an entire season. Then there was Magic, who played Hall of Fame point guard, but was only 2 inches shorter and 15 pounds heavier than Bill Russell. Then came Jordan, who is the GOAT in my mind, but the point is – is there a GOAT other than making for interesting bar conversation?
To my mind, you could argue for any of these men – Robertson, Johnson, Jordan and/or James, but let’s not forget Abdul-Jabbar, Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Pete Maravich, Kobe, Shaq, Larry Bird and Jerry West. I think, depending on which way the wind’s blowing, you could reasonably pick any of them. Yesterday on ESPN’s “Around The Horn” it appeared that most were leaning toward James, especially blowhard Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, the most LA centric “homer” perhaps in the history of sport. To him, James and Kobe were the only players deserving to be in the discussion.
I think I’m going to stop using the term GOAT – too much aggravation for a question that has no answer.

One year to the day as the last time he retired, Tom Brady announced his retirement from football. This season, he led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the NFC playoffs only due to a weak division as the Bucs made the playoffs with a sub- .500 record (8-9). As a division winner, they hosted a Wild Card game, but faced Dallas who were 12-5, one of the three teams from the NFC East to make the playoffs. Dallas was vastly superior but one can never count out Tom Brady, especially in the 4th quarter or overtime, as the announcers have been telling us for over a decade. Brady’s luck ran out and Dallas rolled 31-14.
This season, it wasn’t the same Tom Brady as before. While he still passed for nearly 4,700 yards, 25 touchdowns and only 9 interceptions, his QRB was 90.7, his worst rating since 2018, a lot of his passes missed badly and looked bad many times. The media was split between people who thought Brady would continue to play and those who thought he would retire. The speculation was the Brady, a free agent, would return to his native California with the 49ers a quarterback away from being a Super Bowl team. Others had him going to the Las Vegas Raiders since his old coach Josh McDaniels is the head coach there and they need a QB since they appear ready to part ways with Derek Carr. There were those who even thought that Brady would go back to New England.
A smaller number of observers thought he would retire. Some believe that, like last year, Brady will change his mind again. The announcement sent shock waves through the league, Besides Carr, Aaron Rodgers’ continued frayed relationship with the Packers, and the teams who need QB’s – Tampa now, Houston, Indianapolis, the Jets, maybe Tennessee and Baltimore if they can’t come to terms with Lemar Jackson, and that’s just the AFC. In the NFC, teams seeking QBs are Washington, Carolina, New Orleans, and Atlanta. Despite Brady being off the board, the GMs are waiting until after the Super Bowl to consider deals. The Chicago Bears, “on the clock” with the first pick in the 2023, the pick is even more valuable.
Now Tom Brady may start working for Fox as a very well-paid analyst. I am ambivalent about hearing Brady on television. Some celebrities you like, even if you don’t know them; others you don’t for PR or overexposure. Tom Brady has points on both sides of the ledger: pros – he is the winningest quarterback in the sport’s history, he is telegenic, he has fully accepted responsibility of the son he had in a premarital relationship with Bridget Moynihan. The cons – he has become football’s Kardashian, a celebrity in great part because of his marriage and then divorce to super model Gisele Bundchen, and his own publicizing of products and self-help philosophy. Plus, he is the ultimate white boy, clean cut, generically pretty boy; beautiful and rich ex-wife, many pretty women to date in his future (but I’m not jealous…)
Personally, I’m tired of hearing about him. Television broadcasters have touted the best quarterbacks, especially those who are calm under pressure and lead last minute comebacks. John Elway, Rodgers, Mahomes, now Jake Allen and Joe Burrow are always subject to “the (Blank team) has left too much time on the clock for (fill in QB name here).” Brady was the same, hyperbolic praise lavished on these men by the broadcast team. They said it so often that it became a cliché of its own.
I do wish Brady well, and if he’s on television, I hope he’s successful – if not, I will mute the television. Most of all, I hope he fades into some level of obscurity so we don’t need to hear as much about him, or only in the football season.
I have a feeling he’d like that too…

No person is all good or all bad. When a famous person dies, you see the tributes, all of the great things that person did, but often without the blemishes. That won’t be the case with Bobby Hull, who left us this morning. What can be said is that he did live life to the fullest, good and bad. His life was almost stereotypical “hockey player” for good and ill.
Of course, in the sports world, especially here in Chicago, Hull was a legend. Hull played 15 seasons with the Blackhawks, 1,063 NHL games, accumulating 610 goals, 560 assists, 1,170 points, 640 penalty minutes, three Art Ross Trophies, two Hart Memorial Trophies (he finished second or third in the voting an additional six times), a Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, and a Stanley Cup Championship, adding 62 goals and 67 assists for 129 points in 119 playoff games.
Many people will blame/agree with him when he left the Hawks for the WHA for much more money than Arthur Wirtz (father of “Dollar” Bill Wirtz and grandfather of current owner Rocky Wirtz). He played in 411 WHA games, scoring 303 goals, 335 assists and 638 points, adding 43 goals and 37 assists in 60 playoff games. His North American major league professional total of 1,018 goals (NHL and WHA including playoffs) is the third most of all-time after Wayne Gretzky (1,109) and Gordie Howe (1,071), although the NHL does not recognize scoring statistics from the WHA in players’ career totals. (In case you’re asking, Alex Ovechkin stands at 878 goals all time regular season and playoffs.)
He was as big a presence off the ice as he was on the ice. I think he really was the Paul Horning of Hockey (minus the hanging with gamblers). Like the stereotype, Hull caused problems, because young hockey players never really mature. Hull was born in Pointe Anne, Ontario then played minor hockey in Belleville, and then Junior B hockey for the Woodstock Warriors in the fall of 1954. Hull led the Warriors to the 1955 Sutherland Cup as Ontario champions. Later, he played for the Galt Black Hawks and the St. Catharines Teepees in the Ontario Hockey Association, before joining the Chicago Black Hawks in 1957 at the age of 18.
In many ways, Bobby Hull was the stereotypical privileged hockey player from a very young age. For example, the player has no fidelity in their marriages, and being the 1960s and 1970s, domestic violence was much more “normalized.” Hull’s marriage to Joanne McKay ended in divorce in 1980 after several abusive incidents. In 1986, he was accused by Deborah, his third wife, of assault and battery. While she eventually dropped the charges, Hull was convicted in 1987 of assaulting a police officer who intervened in an argument between Hull and. A mini-documentary by ESPN in 2002 included his previous wife, Joanne, recounting a fight in which Hull beat her in the head with a steel-heeled shoe, then held her off a balcony in Hawaii. Hull’s daughter, Michelle, who became a defense lawyer for female abuse victims, also detailed Hull’s history of alcoholism in that documentary.
If that wasn’t enough, Hull was quoted saying racist comments. In 1997, a Russian publication quoted Hull praising Hitler for “good ideas,” claiming the Black population was growing too fast and expressing support for genetic breeding. Hull denied the comments and sued the publication at the time.
Despite this background, when Rocky Wirtz inherited the team and changed the culture of his father to great PR improvement. Despite the history, Hull was chosen in 2008 to become a Hawks team ambassador alongside Chris Chelios, Denis Savard and the late Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito. Three years later, the team erected a statue of Hull and Mikita along Madison Street outside the United Center.
But, when Wirtz and the Blackhawks got into trouble for covering up sexual abuse conducted by the team’s video coach during the Hawks’ 2010 Stanley Cup Championship run, heads rolled. GM Stan Bowman was fired, former Coach Joel Quenneville was forced to resign from his head coaching job in Florida. With sexual abuse allegations ravaging the team and its public face, it probably wouldn’t be a good thing to have a team ambassador with a well-known history of spousal abuse and infidelity. In 2020, the team and Hull agreed to part as an official spokesperson, but Hull continued to make many local appearances and sell photos and memorabilia for money. Of course, Bobby is better known to younger hockey fans as the Dad of Brett Hull, who followed in his father’s footsteps scoring 716 goals and winning one Stanley Cup (like his father).
I met the Golden Jet a few times, and he always seemed decent, although perhaps his feelings about Black people colored his judgement (I was usually the only Black fans around at the time). So, it is sad that we lost Bobby Hull today; another legend gone, but it appears that the media is covering his faults along with the hockey glory,

Probably due to its long history, the Baseball Hall of Fame nominees, election and enshrinement get boatloads of attention from the media and the public. The media coverage is understandable since the Baseball Writers of America (“BBWA”) are the voters. There is usually more controversy about who isn’t voted in: Pete Rose still banned from baseball and even being voted upon; and of course, the Steroid Boys – Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and the others.
This year, there is less controversy – Bonds and Clemens have been on the ballot for 10 years and haven’t made it, so they aren’t on the BBWA ballots anymore. Rose’s situation hasn’t changed. This year, it’s who did get elected. Scott Rolen was the only player elected this year in the regular vote, getting five votes over the number required to be enshrined. Rolen was a great fielder having made 7 All-Star Games, and was an eight time Gold Glove winner. As a hitter, the numbers, especially in comparison to Hall third basemen: a lifetime .281 hitter with 316 home runs and 1,287 RIs in a four-team 16-season career. Compared with other Hall third basemen he tends to end up ahead of the early game third basemen only: he ranks ninth in hits; 7th in runs scored, but sixth in homers; seventh in RBIs; 10th in batting average. First baseman Todd Helton was second with 281 votes (72.2%) and Billy Wagner was third with 263 votes (68.1%). The Steroid Gang that’s left on the ballot garnered approximately the same vote percentages as last year – Alex Rodriguez got 35.7% of the number required and Manny Ramirez garnered 33.2%. Of the first timers on the ballot, Carlos Beltran got the most at 181 (46.5%), hurt no doubt by his involvement in the Astros cheating scandal.
Back as a kid, the Hall of Famers were God – they were obvious, we used to discuss who we thought were obvious Hall of Famers. Partly because we were kids, because the other sports weren’t as popular, as all encompassing as baseball was. Over time, baseball stars have become smaller as basketball and football and hockey stars have gained in significance. It doesn’t help that this period’s superstars are nearly all tainted by performance enhancing drugs.
But Scott Rolen? Not someone I remember as being Hall of Fame level great. He never came to mind as one of the great hitters (unlike Chipper Jones, another third baseman who, astonishingly, Is not in). He was an All Star level player, not a Hall of Famer on first look. Baseball took a needed step in having more players make the Hall when they created a Contemporary Baseball Committee and a Golden Age Committee, players in the Contemporary committee, players and historians in the Golden Age Committee. Already, the Contemporary Committee has elected players who came nowhere near the level required to be elected by the BBWA. For example, Fred McGriff “The Crime Dog” will be enshrined along with Scott Rolen. While McGriff was never going to be elected by the BBWA, the Contemporary Committee voted in McGriff unanimously. I know that this may be sacrilege to White Sox fans, but the surprise enshrinement of White Sox star Harold Baines is in the same category as Rolen. Great player, but not someone I automatically think of as a Hall of Famer. And there are a lot of players who belong like Bill Madlock, Sweet Lou Whitaker, Dick Allen, Dave Parker, Dwight Evans, Reggie Smith, and Don Baylor among so many others.
Perhaps the rules for the Hall of Fame need to be reviewed? Like what should be done with the Steroid tainted? One can make a good argument that Bonds and Clemens would be Hall worthy before they started taking PEDs. Many people think they belong in the Hall. Some people think that Pete Rose belongs in the Hall (as do I), but I am certain that he will make it posthumously (a vindictive bunch is in Baseball). Should BBWA members under a certain age be limited to voting on players who played while they were alive?
I’m not saying that Scott Rolen doesn’t deserve the Hall of Fame. Based on the numbers, he is worthy. His Gold Gloves and All-Star Game appearances confirm his worthiness as well. But he wasn’t a feared hitter, not a man who teams were scared of his batting prowess. The Hall of Fame continues to be in flux and a bit out of control. Someone, perhaps Commissioner Rob Manfred should work with the BBWA, the hall alumni, baseball historians and others to clear up the Hall of fame entrance requirements and voting requirements?